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Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Ben Williams (UW), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Misty Bentz (GSU), Derek Buzasi (FGCU), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Eric Bellm (UW), Sarah Tuttle (UW), Chip Kobulnicky (UWy), Russet !McMillan (APO), Denise Stephens (BYU), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Adam Kowalski (CU), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU)

• BYU - nothing to report
• Colorado - a CU user recently reduced their KOSMOS data and reported that the spectra look nice
• FGCU - nothing to report
• Georgia State - nothing to report
• JHU - there are now many new trained 3.5m users from JHU as a result of their recent on-site training visit. Special thanks go to Russet and Candace for making the visit so productive and enjoyable
• NAPG - no report
• NMSU - nothing to report
• Oklahoma - nothing to report (by email)
• Seattle - since Joanne's most recent run was clouded out, Candace taught her how to take cals with KOSMOS; she will reduce those and provide them to the engineering team if they are needed for diagnostics. Joanne also reported having had success in the getting KOSMOS TUI installed on a gaming computer with a very fast graphics card. She also had an inquiry about slit masks for KOSMOS - see below KOSMOS discussion.
• UVa - nothing to report
• Washington - nothing to report
• Wyoming - nothing to report

Jamey's detailed report is included below, followed by additional information discussed during today's call.

3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights, 2/02/2022 - 3/01/2022

0) Overview

APO is no longer under any staffing or indoor masking restrictions from the State of New Mexico due to COVID. The COVID daily cases are dropping in New Mexico currently, which may indicate that New Mexico is beyond the peak.

Weather for February has been cold with average precipitation.

Q1 in-person training is ongoing with a large group from JHU having just completed on site training. More trainings are scheduled for March (CU) and April (OU), and planning has begun on those. The COVID vaccination policy for ARC/APO has not changed.

1) Telescope

The 3.5m telescope is performing as expected.

2) Instruments

KOSMOS: Commissioning activities are continuing; the instrument is still being offered on a shared risk basis. A new instrument shutter for low temperature operations was installed and is working; the shutter for the slitviewer is having low temperature issues. A replacement shutter for the slitviewer is on order.

DIS: Scattered light has leveled off for both the blue and red cameras. For the red camera the throughput is good for a stellar spectrum in the default position, but spectra of extended objects or targets off center on the slit may fall on contaminated areas of the detector. Throughput on the blue camera is about half of what it was earlier in 2021.

!TripleSpec: Cold, operational and performing nominally.

Agile: Cold, operational and performing nominally. There is a known issue with missing observatory and WCS cards from the headers that we are trying to track down. This problem seemed to originate about the time we converted and moved the hub35m to a new server (mid December).

Echelle: Echelle inter-order light has leveled off.

NICFPS: The instrument is performing nominally with the occasional need to reset the controller due to corrupted images, and previous cautions about rotator angle.

ARCTIC: Cold, operational and performing nominally. The instrument had a cluster of dropped quads in mid February, but has settled down since then.

We expect to be working on the commissioning of two PI-level visiting instruments in Q2.

3) ARCSAT: Recent use has been relatively problem free.

No major updates beyond what is written in the above report. It has been cloudy recently. CU will be on site next week for training and the observatory staff is preparing for that visit.

Sarah addressed the question of slit masks. They are trying to figure out the process for designing/fabricating multislits. Her group tried to use the software from KPNO that was designed for this purpose but it is not working. The software is needed to figure out where the objects go on the slit mask. If one had a small number of targets (5?) one could figure it out without software, so the ease with which this can be accomplished depends on the application. Mechanically we will still have them cut using the old style (non reflective) slits.

In a recent development, some users and the observing specialists reported seeing some weird effects in the flats with some of the slits. Bill will investigate this to determine if there is a mechanical effect, i.e. whiskering, where one sees fine metal pieces along the slit edges (it is “growing” on the back side, i.e. non-reflective side). Sarah had been getting organized to do a fabrication run of a new set of standard slits but this is on pause until we understand what is causing this mechanical effect. Sarah can take a look at the cals that Joanne recently acquired to investigate further. Bill examined at the .87“ and 2.1” slits under the microscope and both show evidence of whiskering; he will look at others this afternoon and will also try using a camel hair brush to knock it loose. It may be as easy as flipping the slits over and coating both sides. Bill will add this issue to the instrument news web page so that users are aware. [Note added in proof: it appears that this is NOT whiskering, but rather seems to be debris that is sticking to the slits. Mitigation strategies are being investigated.]

In other KOSMOS news, there is a new user guide available for KOSMOS that is linked to from the instrument web page; it's a great resource for on-boarding new KOSMOS users: [https://www.apo.nmsu.edu/arc35m/Instruments/KOSMOS/userguide.html]. Special thanks go to Russet, who did the majority of the work in putting the user guide together.

We have a few remaining unassigned dates: Mar 09B (partial half night), Mar 14A (full half-night, bright time), and March 30B (full half-night, dark time). Interested users are encouraged to request any OPEN or DD time through the standard procedure, i.e. by emailing Ben, Russet, Nancy, and their institutional scheduler.

The ARCSAT schedule is full for Q1. The call for Q2 proposals will come out after the 3.5m Q2 schedule is published.

All requests for Q2 have been received, and Russet is working on the schedule. It is complicated by the addition of two observing campaigns with guest instruments. The OU training visit will be scheduled first.

With a return to on-site trainings we revisited a discussion of the remote training option. The group unanimously felt that retaining the remote training option is highly desirable. Specific feedback included the following points:

• JHU: keep the remote training option. It is primarily used by postdocs and research staff, but also sometimes grad students who need to get trained on a timescale that is not conducive to waiting for a class training trip. Case in point: a new JHU postdoc just signed up for the once-per-quarter remote training for Q2.
• Seattle: keep the remote training option. Joanne recently took on some Masters students and would like to get them trained but is not sure if she can orchestrate an on-site training.
• UW: lots of people at UW have taken advantage of the remote option; they would like it to stay. Given that it requires more lead time and possibly greater staffing schedule coordination, if it becomes too burdensome perhaps it could be offered every other quarter.
• GSU: they would like to use the remote training option next quarter; they would like it to stay.

Russet had a question about the CU group that proposed for on-site observations in Q2; is that for training or not?

Two of the recent on-site training groups (JHU last week and UVa in Q4 2021) made simultaneous use of ARCSAT and the 3.5m. While this is possible for on-site trainings, it is probably not doable for remote trainings given the (possible) high level of involvement of the observing specialists for ARCSAT operations.

Nancy and Candace had developed an evaluation form for the trainings; we should encourage its use with every group so that we can continue to learn about what works well and where things could be improved. Nancy will discuss this with Candace and distribute the survey (after revising it, if needed) to groups that were trained recently.

Nancy provided an update concerning new instrumentation for the 3.5m. Recall that the Instrumentation Planning Task Force (IPTF) worked last spring/summer/fall on the identification of potential instrument concepts that would enable users to continue to advance their scientific goals. The IPTF solicited community feedback on three instrument concepts (Ocotillo, ASPIRE, and MBASIC), which were synthesized and included in a report about planning for new instrumentation that was presented to the ARC Board of Governors in November. As the next phase of this process, we will be costing various instrumentation options to determine the best path forward, both from the scientific and fiscal stewardship perspective. The IPTF may be reconvened for another meeting, and/or we will identify several smaller groups to focus on specific instruments. Users are encouraged to participate in these activities, both if asked to serve on a focus group and when broader community input is solicited.

Open action items from previous meetings:

* Nancy: start investigations re: short wavelength throughput (climate data, other facilities). Status: OPEN. Nancy reached out to some colleagues at other observatories to ask about short wavelength performance degradation of their optical coatings. Still waiting to hear back. She will consult with Bill to make sure we are asking the right people.

New action items from this meeting:

• Bill: add issue about debris in slits to KOSMOS section of instrument news web page.
• Joanne: provide Sarah with KOSMOS cals and also desired slit mask configuration.
• UC reps: notify your users of remaining open/DD time in Q1
• Nancy: discuss training survey with Candace, revise if needed, distribute to recent training groups

None.

The next meeting will be on Tuesday April 5, 10:30 am MDT. The remaining meeting dates for Q1-Q2 2022 are May 3 and June 7.